"Come, come, have a seat." I appeared in a large study. The man that had appeared before was sitting behind the desk. I sat down on the chair opposite him and he started speaking.

"I'll get right to the point; I would like to hear your opinion on the last few days."

I fell silent for a few moments, not sure what he was going on about. "The last few days?" I asked, not knowing how to answer.

"Yes, ever since you arrived in the arena, your group was a test after all. For example, do you think, if I don't change anything, that the survival rate of the pit will stay at 1% or will it change? Ah, I scaled down the monsters to fit your initial group of 100. The groups will be 1000 large in the future."

I thought about his question a bit and answered. "I think the survival rate will drop, we were lucky to have weapons but most people who get here won't have those. I also was lucky to have obtained powerful titles, which is why I survived, but those won't be available in the future.

Also, in bigger groups there will most likely be discourse and infighting, which will further decrease the survival rate. I suggest you add several weapons in the pit, they don't have to be great, but it will make sure that at least a small group of people will survive the initial attack. you can also experiment with changing the number of waves or the difficulty of the monsters."

With slight help of the knowledge of the sage I gave some advice.

"Hmm, I see, I'll give that a try." He wrote something down on a notebook and continued. "The infighting that happened after the second wave was fun, any ideas on how to stimulate it?"

I hesitated for a moment but decided it would be better for my health if I answered honestly. "I think that if you increase the time between waves, it should happen on its own. Only the people who ranked at the top would get food and water, the rest would grow hungry and will try to take it from them. This is bound to lead to fighting."

The man wrote down my ideas and spoke. " Anything else that would make it more entertaining?". The conversation started to sound like an interview, but I didn’t comment on it and answered.

"Umm... You could try putting people who know each other in the same group, like family or friends. This might liven things up in interesting ways." I fell silent and thought for a moment. The man looked at me with expectant eyes, so I carefully continued.

"I don't know what the situation outside of the pit is like yet, so I can't really think of anything else for now. I'm sorry.". I apologized, not wanting to make him angry.

"That’s understandable, how about this then? I make you into one of my advisors and you can tell me after you live there for a few weeks." He gave me an offer and I thought for a few moments; my advice would impact every human that would come to the arena from now on, I could influence how many people survived. This by itself seemed like a great chance but, since he came with the offer, I could potentially get some more out of this deal.

"I can do that, I have a request though." I carefully checked his reaction. He seemed amused and beckoned me to continue, which I quickly did.

"Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the arena doesn't have any humans in it, right?" The man nodded. "In that case I'd like help in setting up some sort of settlement for..."

Before I could finish my sentence, he interrupted me. "I can't help you with that, you humans will have to do that on your own."

"Ah, no, that's not what I meant. I need humans with specific abilities in the settlement. For that I'd like to be able to choose people from the pit whenever a new group arrives." I held my breath, waiting for his answer.

He thought for a few minutes but finally opened his mouth. "That sounds interesting, there will be some rules though. You can only pick one person from each group, if I spot someone interesting you have to choose them. And, of course, you can't assist the new groups when they are still in the pit."

His proposal didn’t seem to have any downsides, so I agreed to it.

"Right then. From now on you are one of my advisors. Try not to die in the arena and think up some entertaining ideas. Off you go." The man waved his hand and I appeared back in the pit.

<Your class has been changed to 'Adon's advisor'.>

<Because of the forceful change it is added as a second class.>

<Skill 'Devine messenger II' has been granted>

'So he's called Adon, good to know I guess' I thought and opened my status to look at my classes

---

Name: Hella

Lvl: 13

Class: Adon's advisor, Challenger

Strength: 22

Endurance: 28

Dexterity: 40(42)

Mental: 32

Titles: First blood, Marksman, One-man army, The first smith, Assassin, General killer, Executioner, High judge, First hunter, The pioneer 

Skills: Language translation, Shooting III, Devine messenger II

 

Adon's advisor

    Description: You have been chosen as an advisor by the god of boredom. Can not be removed.

    Effect: you are granted the 'Devine messenger II' skill. You have access to a limited amount of     Adon's authority.

    Level-up: +4% Strength, +10% endurance, +4% dexterity, +10% mental 

Challenger

    Description: You have entered the Arena.

    Effect: none

    Level-up: +4% Strength, +4% endurance, +4% dexterity, +4% mental

---

'Adon's advisor' seemed like a good class. I wasn't sure how to access Adon's authority, as it says I could, but I'd probably figure it out eventually. ‘Also, what does this 'Devine messenger' skill do?’

---

Devine messenger

    Description: Superior form of the 'Messenger' skill.

    Effect: I, send messages to any sentient creature you've met. II, send messages to any deity who approves of you.

---

It was a skill that was essential for Adon's advisor, I wouldn't be able to talk to him without it.

'Anyway, let's go. I've wasted enough time.' I gathered all the useful items that were left in the pit and approached the altar that had appeared.

On the altar laid a single crystal. I grabbed it and was teleported away.

 

I appeared at the edge of a forest.

To my right was the dense forest, the trunks were dark brown, nearly black, and the leaves were a mix of red, orange and yellow. I didn't know whether it was autumn or if the trees just had those colours.

A large cliff, several dozen meters high, obstructed my sight to my left and the front. It was made up of grey rocks and was filled with lots of holes. A small waterfall flowed down the edge several hundred meters away and disappeared into the forest.

When I turned around I could see a large grass plain. I spotted a river, probably stemming from the waterfall, flowing through the plains until it arrived at a small lake.

I looked up in the sky and could see the sun was about 3 hours away from setting.

'I should set up camp.' I walked towards the cliff and stared inspecting the holes. Most were just shallow indentations of the cliff face, but some looked like caves.

I picked a particularly big cave entrance and hid myself. I snuck my way in and discovered a small family of bears. Apart from their size, they looked just like regular bears. I approached the nearly 3 meter long bear and quietly slit its throat. I moved on to the cubs and within a few minutes I had claimed the cave for myself.

I went into the forest to gather some wood and brought it back to the cave. I dismantled the bears and, with my infinite water source, I filled a small hole and started washing the bear hides. I hung them in front of the cave entrance to cover it up and headed further inside.

I used the wood to make a fire. After a few minutes I managed to light it. The smoke disappeared into a hole on the ceiling, I checked outside and saw the smoke exit a hole approximately 15 meters up.

Assured the smoke wouldn't fill up the cave and suffocate me, I went back inside.

I roasted some of the bear meat and ate it. It had a gamy flavour and wasn't all that good, but it filled the stomach.

I had gathered some loose dirt to form a makeshift bed and whilst not all that comfortable, it was better than the rocky ground.

The warmth of the fire and the exhausting experiences in the last 3 days made me quickly fall asleep.

 

It had been 2 weeks since I arrived in the arena.

on the fourth day, the first day out of the pit, I explored the surrounding caves.

It turned out that most of the caves were connected, it's a giant cave system. I haven't explored all of it yet, but it's at least several square kilometres in size.

I occasionally encountered wild animals or monsters, but I made sure to get rid of them quickly. My level has risen to 17 because of this.

When I wandered through the cave system, I found one cave that exited about 20 meters high on the cliff face. I decided to turn that cave into my living space.

Going through the cave system, I could get to my cave in just 3 minutes but if you didn't know the correct route you wouldn't find it easily, so it was probably quite safe from monsters and humans in the future.

I had hung beast hides in front of all the nearby caves so wild animals would be less likely to wander in.

Using an axe I'd taken from a pair of dead goblins, I had chopped down a few trees and gathered the wood in one of the caves. This was surprisingly easy with my increased strength.

 

'Alright, let's get to work.' I finished my breakfast and headed to the gathered wood.

I took several sturdy branches and sharpened them on both ends. Using bundles of grass, I tied them together into several crosses and connected them with another branch to form a simple barricade.

I made a few more barricades and headed further into the caves with them.

I didn’t know what could be hiding inside these caves, so I blocked off the unexplored parts with the barricades. They wouldn’t block a monster that was determined to get past, but it would hopefully prevent anything from wandering in.

I finished putting up the barricades and headed back to my cave. I walked to the end of it and looked outside. Apart from the cave entrances that were covered with hides and a few stumps where trees used to be, the view was the same as when I first arrived.

‘What’s that?’ A small group of goblins exited from the forest. They had lost their weapons and seemed to be running away from something.

They kept running and after a few minutes they disappeared from my sight. I was about to turn around when something moved again. A pack of wolves appeared and ran in the directions where the goblins disappeared. A few seconds after the wolves other monsters appeared. Orc, goblins, direbears and even a small group of trolls, all the monsters I’d come across in the forest, and some more, seemed to be fleeing from something.

Luckily, hiding the caves with hides seemed to have worked, as none of the monsters approached the cliff.   

The horde of monsters continued for about half an hour. When the last disappeared over the horizon I turned towards the forest.

‘This might be bad.’ Since all the monsters fled, something dangerous was bound to have appeared in the forest. I wasn’t sure, but I had the feeling that all challengers would appear somewhere in the vicinity. If there was a dangerous monster here, they would have little chance of surviving.

I headed back into the cave system and after a few minutes I exited a cave on top of the cliff. From here I could see for kilometres over the forest.

A few kilometres south-west I could see a small mountain that hadn’t been there before. I looked at it for a bit longer until eventually something happened. The mountain lifted its head and looked in my direction.

The mountain stood up and moved closer to me.  As it approached me I managed to make out more details. The surface of the mountain was covered in dark red scales, its tail had dozens of sharp spikes and its reptile-like eyes were a mix of gold and silver.

‘No matter how I look at it, that’s a dragon.’ I thought to myself as I locked eyes with the enormous monster.